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How Meditation May Change the Brain

Over the December holidays, my husband went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Not my idea of fun, but he came back rejuvenated and energetic.

He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening, until the end of March. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life.

I’ll admit I’m a skeptic.

But now, scientists say that meditators like my husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The findings will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that did not practice meditation showed no such changes.

But how exactly did these study volunteers, all seeking stress reduction in their lives but new to the practice, meditate? So many people talk about meditating these days. Within four miles of our Bay Area home, there are at least six centers that offer some type of meditation class, and I often hear phrases like, “So how was your sit today?”

Britta Hölzel, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, said the participants practiced mindfulness meditation, a form of meditation that was introduced in the United States in the late 1970s. It traces its roots to the same ancient Buddhist techniques that my husband follows.

“The main idea is to use different objects to focus one’s attention, and it could be a focus on sensations of breathing, or emotions or thoughts, or observing any type of body sensations,” she said. “But it’s about bringing the mind back to the here and now, as opposed to letting the mind drift.”

Generally the meditators are seated upright on a chair or the floor and in silence, although sometimes there might be a guide leading a session, Dr. Hölzel said.

Of course, it’s important to remember that the human brain is complicated. Understanding what the increased density of gray matter really means is still, well, a gray area.

“The field is very, very young, and we don’t really know enough about it yet,” Dr. Hölzel said. “I would say these are still quite preliminary findings. We see that there is something there, but we have to replicate these findings and find out what they really mean.”

Previous studies have also shown that there are structural differences between the brains of meditators and those who don’t meditate, although this new study is the first to document changes in gray matter over time through meditation.

Ultimately, Dr. Hölzel said she and her colleagues would like to demonstrate how meditation results in definitive improvements in people’s lives.

“A lot of studies find that it increases well-being, improves quality of life, but it’s always hard to determine how you can objectively test that,” she said. “Relatively little is known about the brain and the psychological mechanisms about how this is being done.”

In a 2008 study published in the journal PloS One, researchers found that when meditators heard the sounds of people suffering, they had stronger activation levels in their temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain tied to empathy, than people who did not meditate.

“They may be more willing to help when someone suffers, and act more compassionately,” Dr. Hölzel said.

Further study is needed, but that bodes well for me.

For now, I’m more than happy to support my husband’s little experiment, despite the fact that he now rises at 5 a.m. and is exhausted by 10 at night.

An empathetic husband who takes out the trash and puts gas in the car because he knows I don’t like to — I’ll take that.

Hoch is a neurologist who is helping patients with epilepsy control seizures by learning mediation or the relaxation response. Stress affects seizures–and the unpredictability of seizures is a tremendous stressor in the lives of epileptics.

Short story:

Researchers looked at 5400 genes of seasoned meditators & a control group that never meditated to compare gene differences.

They found significant changes in the 2 groups among 2000 genes: those that controlled aging, inflammation, & metabolism.

They then taught the control group to meditate–and looked for changes in this groups’ 2000 genes, after just 8 weeks.

In just 8 weeks they saw definite changes–not yet close to that of the seasoned mediators–but definite changes.

The probability that this would happen, Benson says, is 1 in 10 billion!

I’ve often wondered where expressions like “I feel it in my gut,” or the ubiquitous “butterflies in my stomach,” came from. As a layperson, writer of a new book on living with Crohn’s disease, and Crohn’s disease patient, I am fascinated by the connection between the brain and gut.
According to a New York Times article (Blakeslee, S. “Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Stomachaches and Butterflies,” January 23, 1996), the gut’s brain, “known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Considered a single entity, it is a network of neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce gut feelings.”

After reading the New York Times article, I came across Dr. Gershon’s book, The Second Brain, when I was struggling with a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. Dr. Gershon is chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and is a pioneer in research related to the gut/brain relationship. In his book, he presents a fascinating combination of neuroscience and gastroenterology. Dr. Gershon has devoted thirty years of research to this “brain in our bowel” science, and his writing is persuasive and passionate.

Emeran Mayer, M.D. also theorizes that just as meditation calms the mind, it can also relax the bowel and promote healing. In his research clinic at UCLA, he has found that most patients notice an improvement almost immediately after starting to practice meditation.

In my meditation practice, I strive daily to “open up my heart,” which is for some a symbolic act (or a spiritual affirmation) that reinforces my commitment to healing my self and reaching out to the world and the spiritual forces that I feel guide me. Since I am tall (almost 5 foot 9 inches), I sometimes slouch, and hold my shoulders inward; nowadays, I remember my dance training and pull my shoulders back, which helps me focus on opening my heart.
When I get those “butterflies” in my stomach—one example is having a client call you up and berate you over the phone if a publishing job is late (yes, this does happen, and once a client fired me after a weekend-long Crohn’s flare-up!)—I sometimes tell my client to “please wait a moment,” and I go sit on a pillow on the floor and take a few deep breaths and feel a weight lifted from my heart and abdomen; then, I pick up the phone.

I often use the following intention to end my yoga
practice and also as an overall stress reducer: “May our thoughts be kind and clear; may our words and communication be kind and clear; may our actions and intentions be for the greater good of all human beings.”

Thanks for this article, Tara! I would love to send you a copy of my book, or you can find it on the web.

I practice mindfulness meditation and find that it does cause changes in my mind and body. If I focus on feelings of : love ( “i love”), appreciation (I am so thankful), and oneness (I am connected to everything); then I feel like I am soaring, expanding, and full of joy. I can choose to practice these feelings any time I want– as a tool to get me unstuck or energized. I find that simply by feeling myself smile, for no reason, that transformation begins. I do not list all the whys I feel this way, etc… I simply feel full of love, appreciation, and oneness.
Try it some time.

The work of Dr. Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has studies the brains of Tibetan monks and other highly experienced meditators has also confirmed the brain changes that occur with meditation.

Whether meditation actually increases/decreases gray matter in the areas that matter seems negligent to me. One thing is for sure, over time meditation definitely has the power to reduce stress. By bringing your focus to the present moment and negating thoughts of the past/future, you’re obviously going to decrease your stress levels. There’s nothing you can do at this current moment about what’s already happened or what’s going to happen. Meditation can help bring this realization and make you find solace right here in the present = major stress reliever. It would make sense that the practice would possibly increase gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory, because once you stop thinking about ten trillion other things that don’t really matter, you can channel more of your energy to remembering what’s actually happening in the moment. But for me, I don’t personally need science to assure me of this. However, it’s definitely nice to hear that research is actually being performed in areas of eastern forms of healing.

In a society that demands immediate attention on at least 3 things at once – which is impossible to do – meditation is the alixir to such insanity. Focused in the moment, meditation calms the mind and rejuvinates the spirit. It also requires consistency and is a far more rigorous discipline than it looks on its face. Sitting still and removing all the mind clutter is an exhilarating and challenged discipline. My spirit is always refreshed, centered and energized. The only down side to meditation is not having the discipline to do it!

My comments are subjective. Yoga, which unusually involves some mediation helps people relax. I enjoy it. At one time wasn’t the amount of gray matter, and presumably its distribution coincideded fixed in childhood? it is often accepted that if something works for a person they should continue it. That sounds like subjective science, an awful oxymoron,

I get up a 3 am, work-out w/ weights, do crunches, and cardio. Get to work at 6:30. Arrive back home at 5:30. Help kids w/ homework. Have dinner and discuss day w/ family. Go to bed at 8 or 8:30 (largely depending on level of homework) so that I get somewhere close to the minimum recommended level of sleep.

Now your telling me I’ve gotta find 30-minutes to meditate? Well … okay, I’ll see what I can do, but I gotta tell you, squeezing out another 30 minutes is bound to increase the stresses I feel to get everything else done in a timely manner, which makes me wonder … will the increased stress negate the meditation health benefit?

Congratulations to your husband. I hope that he is able to fulfill his commitment through to the end of March. It was interesting to hear about his journey up to now and it would be interesting to hear about his progress down the road.

While mindfulness has been around for a while, it needs greater dissemination and understanding. It seems to be a great resource for living for individuals and communities.

i’ve been meditating as a lifestyle since the late 60s,…neither would i — (or could i) — choose to live any other way,…it would be like the choice between wearing a horsehair shirt or velvet, everyday,…i’ll take the rich, soft and soothing depth and comfort of the velvet, thank you very much,…the peaceful integration of one’s perceived “self” with the greater sublimities of the universe, certainly takes the “edge” off the friction of the endless chaotic and irritating happenstances of our stress laden modern surroundings,…

as they say,…inner peace greatly improves our experience of the outer,…

“The field is very, very young, and we don’t really know enough about it yet,” Dr. Hölzel said. “I would say these are still quite preliminary findings. We see that there is something there, but we have to replicate these findings and find out what they really mean.”

This reminded me of Columbus’s “discovery” of the new world and the subsequent mapping of the continents by the Europeans.

The practice of meditation is very old and there is much documentation of the benefits that meditators have experienced through sustained practice.

I welcome biological inquiry into meditation practice. It’s often the only way some people can believe something is real.

No studies needed (though the science is very interesting) – millions of people have noticealbly benefited from Meditation through the ages – I’ve seen it in my life and others around me. Tangible transformation.

Meditation and Buddhism teach that one should only be in the moment and doing whatever one is doing or thinking saying, with full conciousness or attention. (don’t get me started on cellphones, etc.)

This decreases anxiety – don’t worry about what happened or may happen. Anxiety is actually seen as a real detrement in Buddhism – where the western world almost encourages it (“buy Mayhem insurance”, “buy a safe car”).

Decreased anxiety obviously improves mood but also “performance” as the business world would call it. I get so much done when I meditate because I concetrate on one task at a time and finish them more often. Productive Multitasking is a myth – or at very least will wear you out. I also feel energized on days I meditate first thing.

Reasearch has shown that our mental state can wear us down physically if we are anxious, depressed, stressed.

“Relatively little is known about the brain and the psychological mechanisms about how this is being done.”

Virtually, nothing is known about the nerve cell mechanisms underlying such behaviors.

The hippocampus and the amygdala are considered members of the limbic system which processes our emotions. They are both known to be among the most plastic structures of the mature brain. The hippocampus represents one of the few structures in which nerve cells have been found to regenerate throughout life.

Nerve cells in both structures use substantial amounts of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, show a high ability of strengthening connections, and are prone to originate seizures.

Therefore, it is not surprising that these structures exhibited the greatest meditation-related changes in gray matter.

The word, Hindu, it today’s parlance has become a ‘pariah’.
Writers, intellectuals, reporters and often the elite, associate any thing good (meditation, yoga, discovery of decimal system, invention of chess, vegetarianism) which has its roots in India/Hinduism with ‘eastern’, Buddhism or some such. If they just cannot get around it, they would use the word, Veda or Dharma. But when it comes to negative stuff – untouchability, dowry, casteism, etc, you can’t keep them away from using the word, Hindu. .. I need to cool down from this angst. I better start meditating!

I lived with Buddhist monks for 6 months as a student, meditating for 2 hours daily and once for 3 daily 12 hour sessions. Then i went on to lead a busy life as a doctor and parent. I eventually learned to meditate in 5-10 minute periods whenever the occasion arose, even while on hold on the phone or in line at the store. Just be aware of your body and posture- any symmetrical spine-straight posture, unfocused gaze and counting breaths can put you into the meditative state. I am not a master, but masters eventually learn to meditate wherever they are and whatever they do.

The Western thinking has always been that only when approved by ‘White coated’ Scientists (priests of today) comes on a TV or in a conference of like minded priests, acknowledges that a machine (MRI scan) can show changes in the brain when someone meditates, the general population accepts. Meditation is a personal experience and cannot be generalized. What is meditation to one may be total craziness to some one. Meditation is not just sitting silently or chanting or thinking of the past or dreaming about the future. Meditation is living in the present moment. Focus is on the present moment as is, without any interpretation. benefits of meditation are personal and can never be generalized or marketed in a program approved by ‘Priests’.

Why is it that whenever I read something by Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Sociologists, and other social scientists, I leave with a vague dissatisfaction. I always feel they didn’t put enough Scientific Method in their recipe, and way too much a priori subjectivism.

I need to meditate more – I felt bothered by the smarmy and false tone of the article. I should feel more empathy for the author, who seeks to make a living and to share a potentially helpful technique with readers and apparently couldn’t find an approach other than a milder version of “I Love Lucy” gender division to do it with.

Superficiality traps us all (or at least all of us on this superficial website).